


For Want of Self-Direction

by leftofrevolution



Series: For Want Of [4]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-08
Updated: 2015-04-08
Packaged: 2018-03-21 20:39:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3704315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leftofrevolution/pseuds/leftofrevolution
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Takes place over a year after 'For Want of Eternal Sun.' Ghazan is settling into living in Zaofu; Kuvira stops by one of his bending practices to chat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Want of Self-Direction

He hadn’t been practicing for very long when he noticed a woman standing with her arms crossed on the outskirts of the garden. Even though they had spoken all of twice ever, and she was dressed down in a way he hadn’t seen from her before in a tank top and a pair of loose pants, it didn’t take him more than a moment to place her. It was hard to forget Kuvira, captain of Zaofu’s guard, Suyin Beifong’s aide-de-camp during the Earth Kingdom Civil War, and currently in charge of the ground efforts to remake the Earth Kingdom into independent states bounded together in a confederation. On top of all that, she was a little bit terrifying in the same way Zaheer was, in that neither of them was very good at dialing down the intensity that radiated out through their eyes and occasionally made them look like crazy people.

She seemed to be doing good work though–at least as Zaheer reported it from his seemingly incessant meetings with her and Suyin Beifong about the restructuring of the Earth Kingdom’s political landscape–so he decided to be polite and stopped at the next good point in his practice, wiping the sweat off his face with a towel before making his way over to her. “Can I help you with something?"

“Your metalbending’s improved,” she said, which wasn’t really an answer, but hey, she was apparently the metalbending wunderkind in town and he liked compliments as much as the next guy, so he smiled instead of pushing her on it.

“Thanks. It’s definitely different from what I’m used to.”

“That isn’t readily apparent. You’re more fluid than most people who have been metalbending for years.“

He shrugged, starting to feel a little awkward. Their last conversation had been just a week after his team’s arrival in Zaofu, over six months back now, and… well, it hadn’t gone _badly_ , exactly, but she had been very interested in learning how his lavabending worked and he both didn’t know how and didn’t care to explain it to her, still more than a little paranoid that the White Lotus were about to show up and try to throw them all back in prison and not about to give up one of his team’s trump cards, even if he had known how lavabending functioned on more than an instinctual level.

That hadn’t happened–or rather it had, and Suyin had promptly sent the White Lotus packing with threats of what she’d do to the next group of self-important jackasses who came to her city demanding she turn over some of her people–and he felt a lot better now about the whole situation, but Kuvira been pretty busy since then and they hadn’t spoken since. Though he’d glimpsed her looking in on his metalbending training with Suyin and the twins a few times before, she had never stuck around, and past a certain point, compliments just stopped sounding sincere and started sounding like a buildup to someone asking you for something. “… Thanks. Might have to do with lavabending demanding more flow than usual earthbending, so,” he shrugged again.

She studied him a little longer, long enough he had to resist the urge to shift. Zaheer had started learning to tone down the crazy eyes in recent months, mostly due to a combination of an offhand comment from Ming-Hua about him scaring his and P’Li’s upcoming rug-rat and his therapist drilling into his head that meditation could be used for relaxation techniques in addition to spirit mojo, and Ghazan was beginning to think that Kuvira could benefit from something similar. She looked like she was on leave from the way she was dressed, but you’d never know it from how she stood and the furrow between her eyebrows.

 _She has no reason to attack you_ , he told himself. _Anyway, you could probably take her_. ‘Probably’ being the operative word there–despite what she said, he knew his metalbending was amateur at best, ‘fluid’ or no, and apparently Kuvira had kicked an alarming amount of loyalist ass during the war–but as far as he knew, Kuvira had supported his team’s entrance into Zaofu; he was only nervous because he didn’t know her well. All that being said, he was running out of ideas as to why she was here, and he nearly startled when she said abruptly,

“I’m heading to a practice with my dance troupe. We’re starting a new program this week.“

“… Okay…”

“We need more tall people. I think you will do.”

What. “Huh?”

“Your metalbending is a bit hesitant still, but at the rate you’re going you’ll be up to par in a few months, which is when our next performance is scheduled. You move well, and both I and Suyin believe you will fit in with the troupe. And your other obligations don’t conflict with our practice schedule.”

 _What other obligations?_ He nearly asked her, but he supposed in a city which prioritized personal improvement over duties to the state, weekly therapy appointments, bending training, Pai Sho tournaments, learning how to cook, and hanging out with his friends a lot counted as obligations as much as anything else did.

This was still super weird. He had been in Zaofu long enough to know that Kuvira and Suyin Beifong’s dance troupe was the premier one in the city (and how bizarre was it that he now lived somewhere with enough dance troupes that such a statement actually meant something), famous for incorporating metalbending into its performances. All of its members were metalbending masters. He had learned to metalbend less than half a year ago. So why on earth would-

Kuvira had turned around and started walking out of the garden while he was thinking, but she had only taken a few steps before she turned and raised an eyebrow at him. “Our practice starts in ten minutes. Are you coming?”

It was remarkable how little that sounded like a question. He almost said no, just to be contrary; he hadn’t gotten this far by letting anyone assertive enough boss him around. (Except for Zaheer. And P’Li. And Ming-Hua. And- holy shit, he was such a pushover.) But… it did sound kind of fun, to be honest, so instead, he grinned, shrugged again, and followed after her. “Sure. Why not?”

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by a fic request by kaldary on my tumblr for a fic about Ghazan in 'For Want of Eternal Sun'-verse with "this shouldn't work but it does." Hilariously, each fic I've written and posted on AO3 has been shorter than the last. I swear this is not an intentional trend, nor one that is likely to be ongoing.


End file.
